College football notebook: Rings won’t dim desire, Saban says

Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoWilfredo Lee | Associated PressAlabama players celebrate after their 42-14 victory over Notre Dame on Monday in the national championship game. It was the Crimson Tide’s third title in four years.

As the soon-to-be owner of a fourth national championship ring, Alabama coach Nick Saban is not averse to flashing his jewelry — but only if it serves a purpose to continue his success with the Crimson Tide.

Asked yesterday what he does with his rings, Saban deadpanned: “I just put them on the coffee table for the recruits to look at.”

At last, a few hours after winning the fourth national title of his career and his third in the past four years at Alabama with a resounding 42-14 victory over Notre Dame, Saban loosened up enough to tell a joke. But he emphasized his belief that the only way to keep a keen edge is to resist the basic impulse to rest on your laurels.

“I don’t really wear any of the championship rings,” Saban said. “I never have. The satisfaction, enjoyment, comes from the fact that you know you did your best. We don’t really need to wear a ring and (hold it up) to say, ‘Look what I’ve got.’ That’s just not my style.”

As proud as he was of his team’s ability to repeat, Saban’s goal now is to set the bar even higher. He declined to reflect on his place in history because he’s still pursuing it. But with four national titles, Saban is only two behind the all-time leaders, Paul “Bear” Bryant of Alabama and Fielding Yost of Michigan. Minnesota’s Bernie Bierman won five, and Saban is even with Notre Dame’s Frank Leahy and Tennessee’s Robert Neyland.

Speculation about returning to the NFL inevitably has surfaced again, but Saban, who coached the Miami Dolphins in 2005-06, shot it down forcefully.

Parity and the collective bargaining rules, Saban said, made it hard for him to “impact the organization the way that I wanted or that I was able to do in college … so I learned through that experience that maybe this is where I belong. And I’m really happy and at peace with that.”

Rose, Sugar to play host to first semifinal games

The first semifinal games in the new college playoff system will be played in the Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1, 2015.

The BCS conference commissioners announced the dates and rotation for all 12 years of the upcoming postseason format after a meeting on Monday.

Whether they are hosting a semifinal or just a marquee bowl game, the Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl will always be played on Jan. 1 — or Jan. 2 in years when New Year’s Day falls on a Sunday. In the eight years in which the Rose and Sugar do not play host to the semifinals, the two playoff games will be held on New Year’s Eve.

Either way, there will be a tripleheader, two semifinals and four other marquee bowl games, on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, starting from the 2014 season to the 2025 season.

The site of the first championship game in the new system is still to be picked, though Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, seems to be the front-runner. The title game will always be played on Mondays, at least seven days after the semifinals.

Three more sites in three times zones also are expected to play host to the semifinals: Atlanta (Chick-fil-A Bowl), Arlington (Cotton Bowl) and Glendale, Ariz. (Fiesta).

ESPN apologizes for comments by Musburger

ESPN apologized yesterday for Brent Musburger’s comments about the girlfriend of Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron during the BCS title game.

Early in Alabama’s rout of Notre Dame, ESPN cameras locked in on Katherine Webb, the current Miss Alabama.

“You quarterbacks, you get all the good-looking women,” Musburger said to color commentator Kirk Herbstreit. “What a beautiful woman.”

“Wow!” replied Herbstreit, a former Ohio State quarterback.

Musburger: “Woah!”

An ESPN spokesman said in a statement: “We always try to capture interesting storylines, and the relationship between an Auburn grad who is Miss Alabama and the current Alabama quarterback certainly met that test. However, we apologize that the commentary in this instance went too far, and Brent understands that.”

Notable

Syracuse will name defensive coordinator Scott Shafer as the Orange’s next coach, a person familiar with the selection process said.

• A Pac-12 investigation found no evidence of physical or mental abuse of players in the Washington State program under coach Mike Leach, the league said.

• San Diego State is planning to attend the Big East’s meetings on Friday, but the school has been talking to the Mountain West about possibly staying in that conference.